Rewards can be very powerful, which is why I have spoken about them so many times! I already wrote about the three keys of rewards (Relevant, In-Time and Meaningful). However, I wanted to just blast out a quick post on the meaningful bit of that! 1 and 2 are essential, 3 is a very big nice to have!
They have to …
- be earned
- have intrinsic value
- have extrinsic value
Feeling that you have earned a reward is much more satisfying than just being given the “I pushed a button” reward.
If the reward has some level of personal value to the user, like it represents the end of a tough journey to mastery, then it will feel much more meaningful.
Ideally, it should also have a real world value, This does not mean it has to be of material value, but it may add to the status of the user, or go towards a real world qualification.
Similar Posts:
- My 3 main focuses for rewards and feedback
- Getting rewards right. Recognise, don’t Bribe.
- Indirect Incentives: Good or Bad in Gamification?
I’m working on an app for my job of course completion, which will work to gamification as motivation in carrying out complementary activities. And in my prototype, I reward the student with badges when it publishes an article, participate in any event, among other activities. And also added a status to the user, where it gains recognition (through points earned by fulfilling the activities) according to the activities in which he participates. The idea is about this, right?
It’s a good start, but you need to answer the question “why are these badges / Points important to me?”
Also, what is the incentive to use the system without the Gamification. If it is for knowledge sharing, then the system also needs to be simple to use and simple to apply logical tagging.
Another thing with the points, make sure you reward effort. I wrote about that a while back https://www.gamified.uk/2015/08/04/balancing-rewards-against-effort-in-gamification/ and https://www.gamified.uk/2015/09/25/value-to-the-user-vs-value-to-you/